Easy Livin'
by Moldehbread
Summary: Follow the adventure of a man in the wasteland, who makes strange friends. See this rag-tag group adventure throughout New Vegas. Set before the events of Fallout: New Vegas.
1. Chapter 1: New Friends

I took another sip from my Nuka-Cola as I stared in to the moniter, my headache growing as I tried to get in. This terminal had been bothering me all night and I was determined to get it open. After another 15 minutes of continous hacking, I finally broke in. There were three files. One was labeled "Prototype X94" One "New Administration" and the last, "Goodbye" Prototype X94 seemed to be about an energy weapon. It was stored in a part of the building I hadn't explored yet, and I had no idea how to use energy weapons, so I ignored the Prototype. New Administration seemed like a pre-war audio log. "Fucking Issac got fired. Thank. God. We got some new guy who seems pretty layed back. I'm just happy Issacs gone, he was SUCH an asshole." There was a voice in the background. "Shit, I gotta go." Boring. I looked at "Goodbye" Another audio log. "We fucked up. We decided to start a fucking war about some nothern shithole, and now they killed us all. They said to get to the vaults. I didn't bother. We're all going to die anyways, no need to prolong the inevitable. Goodbye world. Fuck you." Wow. That's morbid. I heard and explosion , just when I was calming down, I ran out the door to see what was happening. There was a caravan of four, 3 guards and the merchant. They were fighting seven raiders, all weilding suprising advanced weaponry two of them had energy weapons and the others automatic rifles. The caravaneers were taking cover behind a blown up car and the raiders, having not seen me, were filling it with bullets. I pulled out my revolver. Three went down before they saw me, then shit hit the fan. There was a sniper, a good one, too considering the range. My shoulder exploded with pain, adreneline kicking in. I quickly hid behind the wall next to the double doors. The caravan had lost two gaurds. No more good people will die today. I injected a stim-pack and ran over to the burnt-out car, luckily not getting hit. Two dead one injured, one fine. I pulled my grenades out and chucked two over the car, hearing a scream, followed by an explosion. I looked over the car, two more gone. Two more left. The un-injured one's head exploded. I got angry. I got up, not forgeting about the sniper, and unloaded the rest of my rounds from the revlver into the two left. I was in the building again, stuck by a sniper, with a wounded person out there. No more death. I looked around the room, and saw nothing of use. Just normal Rob-Tech junk and a couple of buckets from the utility closet. I got a bucket and through it ou the door. The sniper fire, and gave me my chance to get to the person. Three gunshot wounds, two in the arm, one in the side. Three stim-packs. Damn, not many left. She came to almost instantly with a jerk. I calmed her and said something hopeful. I couldn't pull another bucket, so I had to improvise. With being insane. The only thing he wasn't expecting was for us to run at him, so that's what I did. Didn't work. First bullet hit my left leg, effectivly cripplying it. The second missed, and showed me the muzzle-flash. He was reloading. I already did. He was suprising close for a sniper, my revolver was in range. I hit him somewhere vital, because I didn't get shot again. I didn't have time to check. I was still bleeding vigorously, and stim-packs only heal a small amount. That woman needed help. I got to her, and helped her walk. We were almost to the New Vegas Medical Clinic when I passed out from either exhastion or lack of blood. Never found out which. I woke up in the clinic. A cute redhead was siting in the chair next to me, looking very tired. I tried to sit up. Pain went through my side, lots of it. The readhead got up and eased me back down. "Woah there, not too fast." I layed back down reluctantly. I could be productive right now. I decided to know who cared about me enough to sit by my beside. "Who are you?" I asked in my nicest voice. "Oh he must be brain dead too." The redhead said, sighing. "I'm the damsel in distress you saved back at Rob-Co." My eyes widend. Damsel in distress? "But I was ju-" She cut me off. "Uh-Uh you saved me, no way getting around it." I decided it would be better not to argue about who saved who. "Where am I?" I said, rubbing my temple. "Clinic, only place with medical supplies nearby where you passed out. I woke up and helped you the rest of the way." I tried to get a good look at her, but my eyes wouldn't focus, my glasses being elswhere. "They're right here." She handed me my glasses. "Thank you." I put them on and tried to look at her again. She was even cuter with good vision. She had hazel-green eyes and freckled cheeks. He hair was suprisingly amazing, for the wasteland, and her skin was pale and mostly clean. "Now that you know me, who are you?" She said as she sat back in her chair. A hard question indeed. "I am..." I have no idea. "You are?" She said, impatiently. "I have no idea." I said, sadly. "Yup definitely brain damage." She said, shaking her head. "B-but I don't even know your name. I don't actually know who you are." Se nodded. "Karen Williams. Former owners of Karen Karavans." "Former?" I asked inquisitively. "Aint' much left of it now, since those raiders killed most of it." I finally sat up, being awake for long enough. Karen took a deep breath and said "I'm coming with you." Hmwaaa? "You're coming with me? Where?" This was weird. "I don't know where, but I have no where else to go, since the caravan got destroyed." She looked desperate and sad. I was feeling guilty and sympathetic.I couldn't say no, and I didn't want to. Chapter End. Footnote: New Perk. Friendships. Plus one Charisma. 


	2. Chapter 2: Strange Beginings

Karen helped me off of the bed, being careful not to touch my continued to pack up from the clinic, and pay our bills.(Which were really high.) "Where are we going?" Karren asked, putting some food away into a sasck. "I thought we would head north to the 188 and then west to Freeside." Karen sighed, packing the rest of the food. "Is something wrong with that?" I asked. "Nothing serious, just that i'm from Freeside." Oh. Shit. "Do you want to just go past, and go somewhere else?" Karen smiled, then seemed...happy? "Nope, I said I would follow you, and thats what I'm gonna do." I nodded and slowly realized that was the first time I had seen her smile. I mean it's not weird, we've known eachother for two days but...it felt weird. We finally got out of the clinic, and started toward the trading post. It was blatantly hot today. We got a late start, leaving after lunch, so we started at the hotest part of the day. It got dark before we got to 188, so we camped out for the night. "Matt?" Karren asked, shifting in her makeshift leather armour. I made some kind of grunting noise. Good job man, very flattering. "Why did you let me come?" Oh no. "Well I- uh.." Good job. "I mean, i'm not usefull for anything. I can't hack, I can't aim for shit, and I'm not pretty enought to seduce people." Au Contraire. "You care." Good answer Matt, keep going. Karen looked confused. "Most people in the wastes would have left me to die, not caring about the fact I saved them. You did, you brought me to the clinic. That and I wasn't going to leave you alone miles from anywhere safe, now was I?"  
She stoked the fire, letting out a breath. I slowly layed down on my cot. "Thank you, goodnight." She layed down, leaving the fire. I woke up, feeling a shallow breeze run across the Mojave. I was pleasantly cool, compared to yesterday. Karen woke up first, and made Brahmin Bacon.(Delicously, I might add.) We set off after breakfast, and encountered nothing but the ocasional radroach. We reached the 188 and found nothing interesting but a peculiar man in power armour. We bought some ammo for Karen's shotgun, and some hide to fix up her armour. I decided to talk to the Power Armour guy, while Karen bartered. He was sitting at a bench in the back, so I walked over and sat down on the other side of the bench from him. "What do you want?" A low garbled voice came from the armour. "Oh. greetings, I just noticed you stand out from the rest of the people here and decided to make conversation while my friends trades." The man grumbled and decided I was good enough. "The Brotherhood of Steel." Hmmwaaa? "Excuse me?" The guy sighed. "The Brotherhood of Steel, a group that dresses up like me, and are obsessed with pre-war technology. Have you heard of them?" I nodded, remembering the battle they had with NCR at Helios-One. "What do you think about them?" I thought about it for a second. "I think I should stay out of their way." The man chuckled. "Yeah, I guess." He pushed himself up, sitting straight. "Listen, where are you headed?" I sat up straight. "Freeside, why?" He nodded. "Mind if I come along?" I thought about it for a second and decided anyone who could get ahold of power armour would be good to have as a friend. "Sure, we're leaving tommorrow." He nodded and headed into one of the trailers in the back. I went to find Karen and found her sitting at the bar. "How are things?" She asked, putting her Sasparilla down. I took the seat to the right of her. "Fine, we got a friend coming to Freeside with us."Great. I got more water, and some ammo for your revolver." She looked at Vegas, glowing in the dark, contrasting perfectly against the bleak hills of the Mojave. "I've never been there. Will you take me?" I was a bit took aback. "I havn't been either...but yeah, I guess we could get in.." I smiled and got off her chair, throwing a few caps on the bar. "See you in the morning." She waved off. I turned back toward the bar, letting out a breath. The bartender smiled and chuckled. "She likes you." I hmmwaa'd for the second time today. "Say again?" I said, my eyes widening. "That redhead, she likes you. I can tell." I shook my head. "Of course you can." The tender picked up a glass and started cleaning it. "I'm telling you, she does." I sighed and left for the trailer. I woke in the morning to a bang on the floor next to me, and the bartender standing over me. "Times up, get a move on." What a nice guy. I decided to pack up before I woke up Karen, having she done the same the day before. I finished packing and making breakfast and woke up Snow White. Oh god, that sounded bad, I didn't kiss her, jeez. Ayways, she woke up with a grumble and my not so good cooking. I saw no sign of my armoured friend yet. Karren was ready to leave, and so then he shows up. With two rocket launchers. Karren seemed joyful at this, I was suprised. "Lets go." The low voice rumbles out of the suit. So we set out. We got almost to the Grub and Gulp when the Legionaires attacked. Our steel friend took out 7 before he had to reload. Well Dayum. Karren got the last two with her shotgun point blank before I could do anything. "Holy shit..." I stared in awe. I was lucky they were on my side. Chapter End. Perk Added Gun Nut Your One Handed guns now do 20 percent more damage, and are repaired 15 percent more. Footnote: Science skill has reached 100. 


End file.
